22 August 2022

Landslide at Shiite shrine in Iraq ‘kills seven’

22 August 2022

A landslide collapsed the ceiling of a Shiite shrine in central Iraq and killed at least seven people, including a child, officials said.

It comes as rescuers continue to search for survivors.

The landslide struck Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine near the holy city of Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, on Saturday.

Emergency services and rescue workers are seen at the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine near Karbala, Iraq, on Sunday August 21 2022 (Anmar Khalil/AP) (AP)

According to Iraq’s civil defence, the landslide hit the ceiling of the shrine, which lies in a natural depression, causing it to cave in and dumping a stream of rock and mud inside the structure.

The entrance, walls and the minarets of the shrine, which was built on the place of a water source in the desert, remained standing.

Among the dead were four women, two men and a child, the civil defence said, adding that search teams had rescued six people.

On Monday, rescuers were using a bulldozer to try to remove the rubble and search for survivors.

The cause of the landslide was not immediately known, though the civil defence blamed high humidity.

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